Current Affairs Quiz-September, 2020

Notes:
India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar is representing India at the Foreign ministers Meet of the SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organisation) to be held at Moscow.
The meeting is hosted by Russian Foreign Minister. The foreign ministers of Russia, India and China (RIC) would hold a luncheon meeting on the side-lines of the SCO. India has been the fulltime member of SCO since 2017.

Notes:
Former World Number 1 Women Tennis player Serena Williams has entered the US Open 2020 semi-finals.
With this, the Tennis Legend has entered semi-finals in US Open for eleven times in a row. Serena, who is 38 years old, has won 23 Grand Slam singles titles including six US Open. She was the runner-up in US Open four times.

Notes:
The Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat has stated that India’s Defence exports has grown by 700% from Rs 1521 crore in 2016-17 to Rs 10,745 crore in 2018-19.
Also, as of 2019, India is ranked 19th in the list of top Defence exporters in the world, which is an all-time high rank ever featured by India.

Notes:
The High Court of Kerala has issued a set of directives to the state regarding Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO).
The High Court has directed the state to appoint woman IPS officer in every district, to oversee the cases investigated under POSCO Act. It has also directed to establish One-Stop Support Centres, in lines with the Supreme Court directions, to protect the victims.

Notes:
The first India-France-Australia Trilateral Dialogue was held in a virtual mode recently. The virtual meet was co-chaired by Harsh Vardhan Shringla, the Foreign Secretary of India.
The meeting focused on enhancing cooperation among the three countries in Indo-Pacific Region. Moreover, the participants discussed on economic and strategic challenges in the context of the COVID-19.

Notes:
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a Conclave on “School Education in 21st Century” today through video conference.
This video conference was held on the background of National Education Policy 2020, as a part of the Shiksha Parv initiative. The Prime Minister also announced that School students will have new curriculum framework by 2022.

Notes:
Germany has recently carried out the first nationwide test of its civil alarm systems since the end of the Cold War.
The country has also newly created National Warning Day, or Warntag, which is to be observed every year on September 10. Several alarms were sounded to alert the public to create the awareness about the measures to be taken in the backdrop of a national emergency.

Notes:
Global rating agency Moody’s Investors Service has estimated that India’s real GDP would contract by 11.5 per cent in fiscal year 2020-21.
Earlier, the agency has estimated that India’s economy would contract by 4.0 per cent during 2020-21. CRISIL also said that the collapse in GDP was one of the sharpest among all major G-20 nation and the growth is expected to rebound to 10.6 per cent in 2021-22.

Notes:
India has voted in favour of a COVID-19 resolution in the U.N. General Assembly (UNGA), along with 168 nations.
The resolution reaffirms international cooperation to respond to COVID. It also acknowledges the WHO’s leadership role during the pandemic. The U.S. and Israel voted against the resolution while Ukraine and Hungary abstained.

Notes:
The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has approved the appointment of Sameer Kumar Khare as new Executive Director of Asian Development Bank (ADB).
The veteran bureaucrat has been appointed to the post for a tenure of three years. Sameer Kumar is a 1989-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer. He is currently serving as Additional Secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs under Ministry of Finance.